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This year marks the beginning of our eighth year homeschooling. Typing those words seems so very strange. I truly cannot believe that it has been that long!
Our children will be in 1st, 3rd/4th, 5/6th, and 7th grades. Our 7th grader is working hard to finish two years of curriculum during the year so that she can complete the 8th grade by the end of the year {gulp!}.
If you are new to homeschooling and aren’t sure where to begin in choosing homeschool curriculum, please don’t let this post overwhelm you! Here are a few posts that you might find helpful as you discover what is best for your family. Be sure to check out the entire Homeschool Basics series for answers to more frequently asked homeschool questions.
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 Here’s a peek at what we’re planning to use this year. It’s entirely possible that I’ve managed to leave something off the list – which means I many edit it as the year progresses!
History {Daily}
Our ‘core’ focus this year will be Mystery of History Vol. 3 by Linda Hobar. In addition to the main book, we are using the following go-along digital pieces from Bright Ideas Press:
- coloring pages – our kids LOVED these last year and helped with wiggles while I was reading!
- challenge cards {facts and questions to learn from text}
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Wondermaps – the fabulous interactive maps from Bright Idea Press.
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timeline figures – see how we’re using our timeline here
Bible {Daily}
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All ages – Picture Smart Bible lessons
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Apologia’s Who is God? {McKenna} and Who Am I? {Laurianna}. The girls will also be using the notebooking journals to go along with the text.
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We Choose Virtues – part of our morning/calendar board for character
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90 Devotions for Kids – morning devotions
Language Arts {Daily}
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1st Grade ~ First Language Lessons 1 {moving on to First Language Lessons 2 when completed}
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4th and 6th Grade ~ Easy Grammar and Daily Grams.
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7th Grade ~ Growing with Grammar 7 and Daily Grams.
Spelling {Bi-Weekly}
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All ages ~ All About Spelling {ranging from Level 1 up to Level 7}. We will also use All About Homophones with everyone during the year. Not familiar with this curriculum? Check out my review of All About Spelling.
Writing {Daily}
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4th Grade ~ WriteShop Primary C and Junior D
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6th Grade ~ Independent Writing assignments based on IEW co-op class
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7th Grade ~ WriteShop Basic Set {for Junior High}
Reading ~ {Daily}
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1st Grade ~ finishing All About Reading Level 1Â and then moving on to All About Reading Level 2
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4th Grade ~ All About Reading Level 3 {when released} and then books at reading level for independent reading.
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6th and 7th Grade~ Books at reading level to go along with Mystery of History 3. We will be tracking books using our Reading Log and writing reports using this Book Report Form.
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Entire family ~ We will also have read-alouds for the whole family during the week and I’m working on that list. The bulk of the books will go along with our studies, but we want to include some other fun books to read during the year too.
Math {Daily}
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1st Grade ~ Saxon Math 2 and Life of Fred
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4th, 6th, and 7th Grade ~ Teaching Textbooks levels 4, 6, and 7, and Pre-Algebra. All of the kids are also using Life of Fred {different levels} twice a week.
Science {Varies by Grade}
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1st Grade ~ Science 1 from Nancy Larson Science
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4th and 6th Grade – Science 4 {ages 10 to 12} from Nancy Larson Science
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7th Grade ~ The Rainbow program from Beginning Publishing {a two year jr. high science program}
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LEGO Education programs ~ WeDo and Simple Machines
Handwriting {Daily}
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1st, 4th, and 6th Grade – A Reason for Handwriting levels A, D, and F
Art {Once a Week}
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All ages – See the Light art curriculum dvds {special art projects}
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Pastel tutorials from HodgePodge ~ the kids loved these last year!
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Draw Write Now ~ these books from Barker Creek have been a staple in our home for years and our kids LOVE them. We have the full set which is available from both Barker Creek and Amazon.
PE {When I Remember…}
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All ages – Family Time Fitness homeschool program
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PE via our local co-op
Spanish {Bi-Weekly}
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5th and 6th – Rosetta Stone Latin America Level 1Â {Homeschool version}
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TELL ME MORE Spanish Homeschool programs (using for high school credit)
Curriculum Choices from Years Past…
If you’d like to see what curriculum we’ve used in years past, click on one of the posts below. Grade levels taught each year are listed with the posts.
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2012-2013 Curriculum Choices – grades K, 3, 5, and 6
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2011-2012 Curriculum Choices – grades PreK, 2, 4, and 5
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2010-2011 Curriculum Choices – grades PreK, 1, 3, and 4
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2009-2010 Curriculum Choices – grades K, 2, and 3
Additional Resources: Unfamiliar with some of the curriculum choices above? Follow the links below to learn more about the companies and resources:
What is on your curriculum list for the upcoming year? Join up with the 2013 Curriculum Blog hop by clicking on the link below.
The printables shared on this site are FREE of charge unless otherwise noted, and you are welcome to download them for your personal and/or classroom use only. However, free or purchased printables are NOT to be reproduced, hosted, sold, shared, or stored on any other website or electronic retrieval system (such as Scribd or Google docs). My printables are copyright protected and I appreciate your help in keeping them that way.
If you download and use some of my printables and then blog about them, please provide a link back to my blog and let me know - I'd love to see how you are using them! Please be sure to link to the blog post or web page and not directly to the file itself. Thank you!
I always love reading what people use. Say, just curious why your 7th grader is trying to do 2 grade levels in a year?
She is one of our more independent learners and came to us a few months ago to ask if she could try to skip a grade. Our response is that she just can’t skip over the material – it needs to be completed. :) She has been working this summer on several subjects to get to the next level earlier and her goal is to finish two years in one year. This is a little different from some of the other times we’ve bumped kids ahead in areas, mainly because of her age and what needs to be covered/learned.
How cool that she knows what she wants and is working towards it. Have a great year =)
What fun! After seeing your list I am remind of some of the things we have that I haven’t added to our plan for next year! Need to work on that today before I pick Sammy up this afternoon :-)
I am curious why Rosetta Stone won’t work for high school credit? I have always heard it recommended.
I would also LOVE to know how/when you fit the lego kits into your school days/weeks? I would love to try them but am afraid to spend that huge chunk of money and it not get well used. Our regular science is only 2-3 days a week, but with co-op, piano, etc we still fill those minutes fast. And we do science together for 1st-8th so I can’t fathom doing multiple science curriculum. :)
It will also be our eighth year with a 7th, 4th, 1st, K and due date of Jan 2!
Thanks for sharing your line up!
We’re still looking at it – but comparing to another program that we found recently and seeing which one would be more beneficial. Ahhh…the joys of choices!! We have levels 1 and 2 of Rosetta Stone, so just trying to figure out where to go from there.
What great info! I just discovered your blog, it is awesome! We have been using the Robinson Curriculum for 5+ years now and LOVE it! I love most the freedom we have to design it to fit around our children instead the othe way around! Shalom!
I haven’t heard of that curriculum. It never ceases to amaze me how many different options we have to use with our families!
Thanks for sharing your curriculum choices. I was going to order Rosetta Stone a few weeks ago when it was on sale, but then I saw there was a homeschool version. What’s the difference, do you know, and do you think it’s best for a homeschooling family to get that version? I noticed the homeschool set is more expensive. TIA! :)
I know with the homeschool version you can have up to five users and it also includes lesson plans and grading options. I’m only starting to delve a bit more into the structure of it since our oldest is at a point where she is using it more consistently.
I am intrigued by Nancy Larson Science. I am curious, since you say you do it daily, how do you divide up the lessons? From the example I looked at it does not look like it is divided by days. Also, we have done very limited science so far. I am wondering if jumping right in to Science 4 with my 4th grader would put her at a disadvantage. Thoughts?
I suppose I should have worded that better. :) Right now our oldest is working on science daily, and the younger three are twice a week. For me it ends up being daily since we work on opposite days {i.e. Kaleb is M/W and the other two are T/Th}. While there isn’t a set schedule for the year, I just figured out how many weeks we are doing school and divided the number of lessons by that number. The Level 1 program has fewer lessons than the upper levels, so in years past I have eased into science. Level 4 has about 20 more lessons {sorry, I’m not near the teacher’s guides at the moment}. I think we may end up doing closer to 3 lessons per week for our middle two – if I remember correctly there are 80 or 90 lessons}.
As for your daughter, Science 3 may be the best place to start. Their program is age banded, so it isn’t by grade level. We used Science 3 with our 3rd, 5th, and 6th grader last year. It covers astronomy, chemistry, physics, meteorology, geology, botany, and zoology.
I hope that helps some!
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I think that is great when kids take their education so seriously :)
My oldest is also starting to show interest in finishing up her school faster. She keeps asking when she can start duel enrollment, in our local college (( Proud momma )). She will just be starting High School this year. So, I am going to wait untill next year, I think, to look into that. We are, however, going to allow her to do more independent learning, to help prepare her for the demand of college level courses. We found a Curriculum she can do, on her own, Online.
( http://www.time4learning.com/curriculum/high-school.html )
We have never used an online curriculum before, but I have heard this is supposed to be good ((crossing fingers)). ;)
I think it is wonderful that your daughter has a passion for independent studies. It’s something I’m trying to develop in my oldest as well. Because, as I’m sure you know, I’m only one person and can’t teach four different lessons at once. Enjoyed reading your list. The lego lessons sound very intriguing! I might have to check those out for my lego lovin’ boys.
You never fail to encourage me with your posts on what you’re doing! And it always raises questions for you also ;0) What strategy do you use for determining the reading level of books for your kids? I find there are so many different recommendations it’s hard to know!
I would love to ask your opinion on NL Science if you don’t mind Jolanthe. I’ve drooled over NL for some time and I’ve got a 7 year old son who is still learning to read and working on handwriting but making leaps and bounds every day…literally right before my eyes it seems. Would you recommend Level 1 or 2 for him? I’m going to look over the website a bit more later today so I can go ahead and purchase soon I think. My gut says level 2 is better but I wish I could do all the levels honestly. They all look so wonderful! Decisions decisions LOL.
Go with your gut. :) When Zachary was 7 {and struggled with reading/handwriting} that’s the level we used with him and it was amazing to see the difference over the year. You can email me directly if you would like to and I’d be happy to talk more with you. ;)
Did you find a high school foreign language yet that’s a keeper? That’s on Hanna’s schedule for next year and I’m at a loss. Confused over high school history too. Thought I’d check in with you and see what you’d decided.
We are definitely loving the Tell Me More Spanish program. We purchased levels 1-10 set. I’ll see if I can find a coupon code, because they frequently offer up to 40% off the programs! :)
With the We Choose Virtues curriculum, did you buy a kit? If so, which one? I’m not sure what would be the most beneficial. What has worked for you?
The parenting cards, Virtues poster, coloring book, and teacher’s guide are the ones we use the most. The smaller clue cards are great too – but the parenting cards and teacher’s guide would be my ‘go to’ and coloring book if you have younger ones! :)
Perfect! Thank you!